Okemo Bike Climb (M 40-49)

Ludlow, VT, Okemo Bike Climb, Overcast, humid, 60’s, 5-8 mph breeze when not in the trees.

5.8 mile race (first 2 miles downhill/flat; 3.8 miles uphill, avg. grade 10.7%); mass start (~125 riders). Course details here..
Equipment: Cervelo R3, the Hellclimber, with a 32T single front ring, no front derailleur, 12/27 cassette, with Zipp 202’s.

Not a great night’s sleep – anxiety over the gearing on the bike, whether the 32T ring would be too big for the hill, and how I’d keep up on the first two miles. (Woke up at 4:45 AM from an odd dream about Lance Armstrong and my mom discussing the gearing on his bike…and, no, I hadn’t been drinking.) Anyhoo, had a good breakfast (waffles @ the motel! and oatmeal), then drove over to the starting area at Jackson Gore Ice House at Okemo Resort. Got in a good warm-up on the trainer. I contemplated practicing reaching down and lifting the chain from the 32T to the 26T ring, but decided that’d be a very bad and dangerous thing to do. Rolled around on the driveways of the resort for a while, then lined up for the start.

It was a neutral rollout from the parking lot to Route 103, and then it was race on. Fairly steep descent to 103, then about a 0-1-2% descent until the right hand turn onto the mountain. I was spinning pretty fast in the 32-12 combo, doing some drafting off the back of the pack, but had no real chance to move up with my gearing. In the meantime, there were a number of riders off the front. By the time I got to the base of the climb at the turn, I could see a number of riders already hitting the top of the first climb, under the rail trestle.

The pack slowed and expanded to cover the three lanes. A lot of people were sprinting hard, out of the saddle here. I made a big push for about a minute to clear some riders and to get my legs going, then aimed to settle in at my target of 260 Watts. I was pretty quickly into the 32-27 combo, and used, probably/maybe, the four largest cogs for the whole climb – mostly just the 27 & 25 T cogs. I worked my way up the climb, focused on my power – cadence would take care of itself, as I didn’t have any lighter gears for faster spinning. One brief recovery at about 1.6 miles up the climb, and a bit of a slow down a mile later, along with one near the end. I tried to make sure that I stayed on top of the power on the false flats (if 6-8% can be a false flat) and to pass people there, rather than recover. That worked, and I think demoralized a few folks.

I kept track of how many riders that I could see ahead of me, and just ticked them off one by one, or more; from 12 to 10, to nine, to seven, to five, to three, to two – I knew there were more riders ahead, but I couldn’t see them, and had no idea how many there were. I passed the second to last rider that I could see with about 0.5 miles to go. He hung on my wheel for a bit, but I pushed hard out of the last false flat and dropped him. I closed a bit on the final rider that I could see, but couldn’t reel him in. In retrospect, I should’ve gone harder after both of them earlier – I may have left it a bit too late.

Pretty beat and soaked when I crossed the line. Fairly steep finishing ramp. Got over the timing mats and up to the rest area, and counted eight riders already there. So, there were seven that I couldn’t see – they’d gotten away early, and stayed away. Final results had me at 9th overall, at 33:50.2, good for 3rd in the M 40-49 group. Oddly enough, the two guys who beat me in my group were both 49…I hate being beaten by guys older than me.

Overall, pretty happy with this ride. It wasn’t one of my targeted “A” races, but I wanted to do well and to get a few things out of it. I knew that the first two miles would be a problem, and they were. Not having a larger ring in front/derailleur did me in here. Not saying that I’d have made up the three minutes that the overall winner had on me, but I’d have been a damn sight closer to the two guys in my age group, if not ahead of them. Starting at the base of the first climb, with them already up it was a bit to overcome. So, next year, I’ll have a front derailleur for this ride, with a 50 or 53 up front. Given that I was in the 27.5-30+ mph range on 103/100 with my gearing, I’ve gotta believe that I could attack it and make up some time, or at least stay with the leaders, next year.

Surprisingly, the 32T worked fine for the climb – I really, riehle thought it’d be too much given the 10-11% average grade. Pleasantly surprised that I could handle that. Wouldn’t want to do it on the 7+ mile climb of Washington, but it worked fine here, and should be good for the other shorter BUMPS climbs.

For whatever reason, I didn’t bother to look up my best 20-30 min. power. So, I made a few mental calculations and came up with the 260 Watt target. And, what riehle made me happy was that I beat that average on the climb, coming in at 268 Watts, I believe in 29:03. Good for a personal best 20 min., and damned close to a PB for 30 min.

Another lesson: in a race like this, or any race, perhaps, attack earlier. Yes, it’s a time trial, but I needed to let my shark instinct loose earlier for the last bit – I should’ve charged after those last two guys in the final half-mile, not climbed at pace. With that little distance left at that speed, it’s too tough to close gaps at a steady pace. Earlier in the race, it’s fine, and worked well for me. But, there at the end, I needed that killer instinct. I’ll work on that at Ascutney and Newton’s Revenge. Blood in the water, go for it. Everyone’s suffering, but I can out suffer them – and, there’s an excellent chance that I weigh less than them :)

On the descent, a couple moments of note. Clearly taking it easy going down – no need to crash here. Stopped to let the carbon rims cool off – the brakes started feeling spongey after the first 3/4 miles. Then realized that I go much faster down Mt. Lemmon, or on the Sappillo descent, and that I could let loose on some of the descents – that felt pretty good. Still, with the turns and rough pavement, there was enough brake use that I stopped to let things cool off a couple times. (Note: the 2009 Zipp rims do a MUCH better job of heat dissipation than the 2007 rims – big difference between the rear and front rims in terms of temps, and how quickly they cooled off. The ‘07 front rim was burning hot when I pulled over, while the rear ’09 was just warm.) Anyhoo, at one of the stops, a guy in a Cervelo kit asked if I was James. Um, yeah…turns out I’d finished just ahead of him last year at Ascutney, and beat his time at Washington, even though he’d started in the lead wave…and I beat him today. Nice guy. We chatted for a bit, and some other riders came by, and they knew who I was. Very odd sensation to have people telling me where I’d finished in previous races. I’m thinking I need to start paying more attention or something.

Made it back to the starting area for the cookout and awards. These were nicely done. They did medal presentations for the top 3 in each group, with pictures taken, along with a raffle. I won a $25 gift certificate to a local bike shop. Nicely run event. I’d like to come back next year. And, the rain held off until we’d finished, too.